LaxPower has now been around for 20 years, and the people running the site on a daily basis have remained the same since they came on board during the first few years. That will change by the end of 2017. Dan Larsen (who began in 1998) and George Baldassare (1999) will be leaving on December 15.

Dan has handled all news and photography postings, women's lacrosse schedules and ratings, job listings, script and database work, and helped with men's recruits and some Forum administration. George has taken care of everything related to high school boys' lacrosse, served as the chief Forum administrator and moderator, and has been the main person handling men's recruits.

Remaining with LaxPower are Bob Kroshefsky (men's lacrosse), George Hollenbeck (who will shift from girls' to boys' lacrosse), Bill Allen (women's lacrosse scores and recruits), and Larry Feldman (the site's founder, who maintains the ratings program and also works on NCAA tournament predictions and player ratings). George's daughter Keelin is slated to take over girls' lacrosse.

At the time this was posted, Active Network -- the company LaxPower is a part of -- will deal with several areas handled by Dan and George B. as follows:

* News Headlines on the home page and Scoreboard recap links: Will not be updated unless someone new is brought on board.

* Forum: It is likely that the link for new registrations will be available infrequently, if at all.

* Men's Recruits: Although existing listings will remain, new submissions will not be accepted.

* Job Listings: New submissions will not be accepted. Current listings will display until ads reach their expiration date.

It is not known if/when any of the discontinued services will be resumed. If we have more information before the curtain falls, we'll let you know.

* * * *

LaxPower started in the days of slow, often painful dial-up connections. Back then, we generated all of the ratings pages on personal computers and then FTP'd the files -- often numbering in the thousands -- to the server. One could stream several movies more easily and quickly today!

Times changed, thankfully, and almost everything was moved to servers and database tables. But LaxPower was a victim of its popularity. For years, the site carried no advertising, everyone worked as a volunteer, and we covered the cost of hosting and technical help ourselves. After a period of running Google ads to deal with expenses, we eventually looked for help. To make a very long story very short, in the summer of 2007 we were purchased by Active Network, at the time a privately held company and now a recent acquisition of Global Payments.

As almost everyone knows, times changed in another way: lacrosse exploded in popularity. From 2001 to 2017, for example, the number of boys' high school teams we covered grew from 1,622 to 4,033 (an increase of 149%), while the number of games climbed from 11,609 to 31,446 (171%). That's impressive, to say the least, and the trends are very similar for men's, women's, and girls' lacrosse.

Even though the six of us have worked since 2007 as either Active employees or contractors, an effort that began as a labor of love "for the fan, for the sport" continued with that as a primary motivation. George and I are very happy to have contributed in whatever ways we could to support the community in the growth and development of the sport. It's meant considerable work, but it's been both enjoyable and rewarding.

Thanks to the many, many of you who have helped us or the lacrosse community along the way! It's been a pleasure working with you. We will miss the interactions we've had with everyone over the years and hope to see you at a game in the spring sometime.

Ugh, this is not good news. Thanks to both of you, if there's a level above outstanding that's what I'd use to describe the job you two have done. This sight has been run right, and man, one can learn a whole lot here from pretty much soup to nuts.Have never had any interaction with you DD, but I have with you, Balducci, and I must say I think you should give this decision some serious reconsideration as I truly believe you are going to miss me a whole lot if/when you go....there's still time to change your mind. Think about. IMO you have run this ship right despite a somewhat motley crew, kept the ship on course, kept all hands in order when needed, demanded a level of decency which certainly isn't seen at many other sights. BZ, very well done. I've learned a ton from you, and you are going sorely missed by this poster.Fair winds and following seas, my friend, wish you and yours nothing but the best.

Hope your replacement, as unlikely as it is, is half as good as you were and she maintains your standards.(Is it really true that it's Lady Laker?)

We have had it good. This announcement sounds like the owners of LaxPower are not going to support it the way it has been in the past. Hopefully the forums will continue to be active. I don't post much but I have been a frequent visitor to the site over the years (having three sons that have played from youth through college level) and would miss it as the go-to resource for scores, news and info on recruits / commitments. Unfortunate.

Wanted to the take a moment and thank all of the folks who have communicated with Dan and me over the past few days since the announcement of our impending departure from LaxPower. It has been a pleasure to have served the lacrosse community pretty much every day for the past 20 years and we are astonished at the sheer number of people who have used and enjoyed the site over the years.

LaxPower was (and in some ways remains) a labor of love for all of us and I, for one, am gratified that this is not lost on many in the lacrosse community. That our passion for the sport, its players, fans and coaches was evident on the part of all those who visited over these many years validates our commitment and hard work to the sport we love.

To all those members of this community, sorry for all of the warnings, vacations, edits and deletions over these many years - be assured I tried my best to not make anything personal but only my interpretation of what a passionate and respectful online community should be as delineated by the rules we created at inception. I'm not sure where things are going to go from here but I'd urge everyone to take a moment and reflect before making a post you might regret later. In closing, it has been a real pleasure to help provide LaxPower to the lacrosse community around the world and be true to to our longtime tagline "For the Fan. For the Sport".

My best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy holiday season and new year.

CYA around.

Will leave with this appropriate ditty from my good friend, moderator and fellow Goombah, Paesan33's favorite artist.

I also hereby certify that P-33 NEVER uses either peas or cream when he makes Carbonara!

Gentlemen (and especially Baldo, who amazingly coached me as a youth player on Long Island)...

Thank you, thank you, thank you. This has been an amazing outlet for all of us who love the game and especially THE GAMES themselves. I had a spurt of time for about 6 or so years where I knew what was up with High School lacrosse here in the state of Connecticut and did what I could to use that knowledge to interact with my fellow laxophiles. But it was all made possible by the men who kept this thing humming - and your efforts will be forever appreciated and remembered.

Thank you for the wonderful people you are for providing a community for Division II Men's lacrosse for so many years. You have always been a key source of information for me and others in that community

Thanks, Dan & George for your wonderful service to the game and the lacrosse community. Although I'm a relatively late joiner to laxpower, the site has helped me stay in touch with the game and the community in at a level that would otherwise be impossible.

I do hope that you find other outlets for your enthusiasm, your experience and your wisdom.

I just want to echo faircornell's words: thanks very much for your efforts over the years. This site has been really indispensable for keeping up with the game and reading incisive commentary about our sport. Fare thee well, and stay in touch here at LP.